Clara Guibourg is an Online Writer at City A.M. She can be contacted at clara.guibourg@cityam.com. She is particularly passionate about women in business, technology and telecoms.

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1 in 4 Brits are expecting to embarrass themselves at this year's Christmas party (Source: Getty)

December is upon us, and even the biggest grinches among us are beginning to feel the Christmas spirit.

Offices are getting in on the holiday fun, with the Christmas party season just around the corner. UK businesses are set to spend nearly £1bn on staff parties this year, fresh research from Eventbrite has found.

The firm’s Marino Fresch said that companies are spending more than previous years:

Businesses are back in the party spirit and expectations are rising fast, as companies look set to lay on more exciting and experiential parties for staff this year.

Londoners are in particular luck as the study found that London offices are spending by far the most on their parties.

With average spend at £56.50 per head, London workers can expect a far more extravagant affair than those working in Wales or Northern Ireland, where businesses spend an average of less than £20 per person.

Watch out though. As the office party tends to be an inevitably boozy affair, many of us end up doing things we rather wish we hadn’t the next day.

A recent survey found that one in four would end up drunkenly embarrassing themselves - and revealed that a rather unsettling one in ten Brits have behaved so shockingly at an office Christmas bash that they ended up being sacked for it.